Youth compete to enter state pedal pull

By Katie Collins Brush News-Tribune Staff Writer

Posted:
08/21/2012 10:33:53 AM MDT

Updated:
08/21/2012 10:36:08 AM MDT

Pedal pull contestant Baily Hansen makes her way to a full pull in the exhibition class during the Morgan County Fair. Four to 12-year-old competitors who won in their division qualified for the state pedal pull finals slated for September 9 at the Old Threshers show in Yuma.
(Katie Collins/News-Tribune)

Kids ages 3-12 had the opportunity to pedal their own mini-tractors at the Morgan County Fair on Wednesday, August 8 during a pedal tractor pull inside in the multi-purpose building at the Morgan County Fairgrounds in Brush.A grand total of 61 area youth signed up for the event that featured two mini-tractors with an 118-pound sled attached to each that had each child push with all their might to complete a full pull. Although the afternoon began with a three-year-old exhibition round that saw many toddlers pull as far as four and five feet, it was the four through 12 year-old age groups that had persistent peddlers pull for top placing at the State Pedal Pull to be held at the Old Threshers Antique Machinery and Threshing Show in Yuma on Sunday, August 9.

Three-year old Clay Gabel competes in the exhibition class during the Morgan County Fair Tractor Pedal Pull held August 8 in Brush. (Katie Collins/News-Tribune)

The top three girls and top three boys in each group were awarded with the chance to move on to the state finals in Yuma and from there they may even earn the right to pull at the National Pedal Pull competition later this year. Official results and names of the lucky few who pulled their way to Old Threshers were not obtained in time for publication, but as regional pedal pull coordinator Dwayne ‘Shorty’ Edwards noted before the competition, the pedal pull events bring out the best in many children. Some of the children that Edwards has encountered through his years of hosting pedal tractor pulls in Colorado have made long-lasting impressions on organizers including the late Jacob Hastings who died tragically at an early age in a 2002 car accident.

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A tractor enthusiast from an early age, Hastings was known as the 1995 and 1997 state pedal pull champion and won runner-up status in 1996. He even took third place at the national competition at the age of 10.Trophies made available to winners at the Morgan County Fair pull were in fact donated in Hastings memory and a special tractor designed by Edwards was devoted to Hastings and to another influential pedal pull enthusiast who died too early, Kathi Lightseed. “When you meet as many kids as I do, you begin to see that even if they are not the best puller, the way they put forth an effort and the way they conduct themselves just grows on you,” said Edwards. “And Jake was one of those stand-out kids as well as an excellent puller.”Results from the Morgan County Fair’s August 8 Pedal Tractor Pull: Top three girls and boys in each age division earned the right to participate in the State Pedal Pull Finals at Old Thresher’s Show in Yuma on Sunday, September 9 at 9:30 a.m.